This weekend I performed at the infamous Rockerill Festival in Charleroi, Belgium. Charleroi is about 40 minutes from Brussels. People from Belgium call it their version of Detroit. It is a very industrial looking city with huge factories and crumbling buildings. I was lucky to be picked up from the airport by two of the artists that were performing: Elzo Durt & Singularity (Raul Borges). To my great joy Front 242 was playing on the car ride. Being in Belgium that was exactly the right start to what would be an incredible weekend.

Rockerfill takes place in massive abandoned factory complex. It’s several super sized rooms with very high ceilings made of concrete and steel. When I arrived DjPute-Acier was playing. He did an incredible EBM/Techno set. The link to that set is below. Be sure to take a listen to it and I noticed that Download is enabled to grab it while you can. The sound system was sharp and clear and was slightly echoing off the massive room’s walls. I had some good friends show up including Ethan Fawkes and Lady Lupa. Downstairs metal bands performed in a packed room with balconies surrounding it. I could barely squeeze over the edge to see down at the madness. I was pretty shocked when I was told that was the stage I would be playing on!

I took the stage and soon after mind stopped thinking about my day job, love life, Tiffy, NYC, the spring flowers. Those images disappeared and off I went screaming in the night. At one point I stepped into the crowd and a was lifted into the air. For about five minutes I was tossed around dropped, picked up again and somehow ended up back on stage mic and light in hand wholly unbruised. The night went long into the next day. At 44 years old I crowd surfed for the first time and yet that probably wasn’t even the close to the most interesting thing I did that weekend. Until next time Belgium!